Winter Solstice - The Longest Night is December 21 2024

 The shortest day and the longest night – the time that our Ancestors called “mid-winter” is that time that tells us that Nature is still working.  If the day remained short, and the night was long, then the rotation of the planet changed.

Our Ancestors had elaborate rituals to ensure that the planet kept turning, or, as they thought, that the Sun kept revolving around the Earth.

The diagram below shows the angle of the Sun in the north.  Now, with all of the availability of science, we no longer look to the sky to see what will happen.  We have dropped doing the rituals and doing the work to keep the Sun going.  

Winter Solstice

Sat, Dec 21, 2024, 2:19 a.m.

Mountain Time

This post should give you several days to prepare for Solstice and to invite friends over for a meal, if that appeals to you.

Enjoy the Solstice.

Blessings, 

Judy

Fox Haven

The Fox was looking around the area as I finished my meditation.  He stood still, and then spoke.  His comments are appropriate for all of us.

• When the weather changes, or when danger seems to come out of no where, it is good to have a haven to retreat to.  Foxes create a “fox haven” that other foxes can access if they are in danger.  We telegraph the site to those foxes in the area.
• A haven should have a good supply of food.  We foxes look for havens in valleys that are not easily accessible by man.  Here, the small animals, our food, are abundant and understand the cycle of life.  They are in service to those higher in the food chain.
• Water is going to be in short supply.  We foxes can tell because the streams that were forever are drying up.  We say that the haven must have a spring fed water source that cannot be stopped by someone (beaver) damming the stream up water.
• Bring forth only one or two young when you are in the haven.  If you bring in a litter, then the abundance will dry up.  It is written thusly.

Blessings,

Judy

Blue Jay On Balance

In the balance between all living things, Blue Jay has wisdom to share with mankind.  Blue Jay will lie low to see where food is and then see what she might like.  She then will go and pick up a pine cone, fly it to the stash of food, and leave it as she picks up the sunflower seeds that she is really after.  In her mind, a seed for a seed.  The quantity, size, or effort involved, do not weigh into the equation of “this for that”.

Blue Jay says that if humans were more thoughtful about ensuring that something was left for something that was taken, then the karma for humans would be quite reduced.  Since man does not understand balance, and seems to find joy in taking something for nothing, the consequences come in a larger size and last longer.  These might be forest fires where trees have been taken by a company where no exchange was made.  Or, it might be flooding where fishing without replenishment takes place.

The idea that we need to balance with Nature, when we walk out in Nature, or take from Nature, was a common theme in the lives of our Ancestors.  The last four centuries of people in the western world moved away from this.  It is time to bring the balance back.

Blessings, 

Judy

The Long Road

On the weekend… I was shopping - groceries and running errands, and the traffic was so incredibly slow.  Folks were doing 30 and 40 on the freeway and it was plus 8.  I was musing and pulled out my journal from several years ago.  As you have seen from past posts that I do, I sometimes pull something out of an old journal to share with you.  Here is a reflection on driving the long road.

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Tonight, the traffic was very slow for my 25 kilometer drive home.  It took me an hour!  This kind of traffic makes my tired and frustrated.

I asked why I had to endure this – a total waste of time.

The answer was – you do not have to endure.  Choose not to do the drive.  Or choose not to work out there.  Or choose a different way home.  

All the answers were about choice – we can choose the long road, or not.

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Blessings, 

Judy

Gorilla on Growing Children In My Meditation

 

Gorilla walked into my meditation space and sat down.  She flashed me a picture of her two offspring, and said, “I want to talk.”

She continued on.  “When raising children, one needs to remember that we parents are preparing them for life.  We need to teach them kindness, independence, and how to think things through.  We need to teach them how to feed themselves, fend for themselves, and how to fend for others if required.  It is a sacred job that the One Spirit has given us.  We must do it well.”

And then she got up and walked away.

You can see more wisdom from Gorilla here.

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2023/05/gorilla-on-strength-spirit-animal.html

Blessings,

Judy

Mink and Water

 

Mink, a spirit animal, says that water is very important to all of us.  Creator has made us all – all animals – mostly water to remind us that we are all fluid – that is our spirit, our energy, is able to move with the flow.  There is no reason not to move fluidly, whether we dance, sing, run or walk.  We are meant to flow on the easiest path. 

Mink observes that especially in winter, humans do not flow.  Mink thinks this is because that humans do not move close enough to water.  Instead, they sit in buildings and other dry places.  Even drinking lots of water does not ease the burden of loss of fluidity.

Minks like to live near water and are seldom found far from riverbanks, lakes and marshes. Even when roaming, they tend to follow streams and ditches. Sometimes they leave the water altogether for a few hundred metres.  This is the example that humans should follow.

Blessings,

Judy

When We Visit Nature

 

If we go out into the natural world and just talk about the same things we talk about all the time, we may as well have stayed at home. When we visit nature we should put down everyday small talk, subjective mental activity, judging and discrimination, and just open up and observe nature. 

Starting from the time of the Buddha, it was almost always the custom for those who had left home life to spend some time practicing in the mountains. Generally the hut they lived in was made so that it could be put up and dismantled very quickly, so that the person could move on to another place. The purpose was to live a life that would not foster a group mentality, but rather cultivate a holistic attitude where one would feel at one with all lives and the universe.  — Master Sheng Yen, "As Spacious as Nature"

Blessings,

Judy